Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 218 is my conversation with Joshua Medcalf, founder of Train to be Clutch and author of six books including Pound the Stone, Chop Wood Carry Water, and Hustle. Joshua gave up law school scholarships to serve at a homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles and became one of the most sought-after voices in mental conditioning, working with elite programs like UNC women's soccer. We get into the jade-worker proverb behind his first book, his framework for identity, and why he believes you behave your way into belief rather than the other way around.
Listen now: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · stream the full episode here.
Joshua Medcalf is the founder of Train to be Clutch and the author of six books on mental conditioning and life skills. He gave up law school scholarships to live at a homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles, then moved into the closet of a gym where his mission to love people, serve people, and provide value was born. He created the first mental training apps for basketball, soccer, and golf and has worked with UNC women's soccer.
Pound the Stone comes from a Chinese proverb about jade workers who must hammer and chisel the stone a thousand times to create a masterpiece. The concept emphasizes that everything great in life is created through small daily effort, not through shortcuts. Joshua Medcalf wrote the book to share mental conditioning principles that help anyone perform under pressure.
Mental conditioning is training your mind the same way you train your body through techniques like visualization, positive self-talk, breathing exercises, meditation, and journaling. Joshua Medcalf teaches that most athletes are trained physically but not mentally, and that consistent mental training through these techniques improves performance under pressure.
According to Joshua Medcalf, you change your identity through small, consistent actions rather than by trying to change your beliefs first. Your behavior reinforces your identity, so taking actions aligned with the identity you want will eventually shift your beliefs about yourself. This is the opposite of the common advice to believe your way into a new behavior.
The 4-7-8 breathing technique involves breathing in for four seconds, holding your breath for seven seconds, and breathing out for eight seconds. Joshua Medcalf teaches this method as a way to manage your nervous system and control your fight-or-flight response under pressure. Doing a few cycles will calm your nervous system.
Tom Rowland Podcast Episode 218 with Joshua Medcalf is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, and iHeartRadio. You can also stream the full episode from the player linked at the top of this page.
I have been reading Joshua's books for years, so getting to sit down with him was a treat. The story alone — giving up a law school scholarship to serve at a homeless shelter, then living in the closet of a gym where Train to be Clutch was born — is not something you hear every day.
What I really wanted was the philosophy underneath the books. When Joshua talks about identity, pressure, and the daily work of becoming who you want to be, he is not pulling it from a blog post; he has lived it and taught it to elite programs. I wanted him to walk me through it in his own words.
Press play to hear the whole conversation in his own words — stream the full episode here.
Joshua was struggling in law school, wrestling with his direction, when he saw an article about a Los Angeles homeless shelter looking for young adults to live and serve. He felt called to go, told his mom he was giving up his scholarship to move across the country, and got a mixed reaction — until his dad told him that if he was going to do it, he had to do it fully and with integrity. Those six months became the foundation for everything that followed. Hear the full story in the episode.
The title Pound the Stone comes from a Chinese proverb about jade workers who hammer and chisel the stone a thousand times to create a masterpiece. Joshua explains that we live in a world chasing the magic pill and the shortcut, comparing ourselves to people at the top of the mountain and thinking we need one giant leap, when everything great is actually built through small daily effort. He goes deep on why consistency beats intensity. Listen to that section.
Joshua introduces a framework that flips conventional wisdom. Identity, he says, is like your operating system — the beliefs you hold about yourself drive what you do. We have been taught that we have to believe our way into a new behavior, but Joshua argues the reverse: you behave your way into a new belief. Take small, consistent actions aligned with the identity you want, and your beliefs shift to match. The full explanation is in the episode.
Listen to the full conversation: Apple Podcasts · Spotify · or stream the full episode here.
Joshua breaks down the core techniques he teaches: visualization, which fires the same neural pathways as actual performance; positive self-talk; breathing exercises, including the 4-7-8 method of breathing in for four, holding for seven, and out for eight; meditation for focus; and journaling for processing emotions and gaining clarity. He has used these with programs like UNC women's soccer, and they are accessible to anyone. Listen for the full breakdown.
The part that struck me most was Joshua's framework around identity and behavior. We are always told we need to believe something first before we can act differently, and Joshua flips that completely. Small, consistent actions change your identity, which then changes your beliefs.
His point about pressure being a gift because it means something matters to you is a complete reframe that can change how you approach big moments. If you have read his books, this conversation gives you the backstory and the deeper philosophy. If you have not, it will make you want to.
Grab the full episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or stream it here.
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Train to be Clutch · Pound the Stone · Chop Wood Carry Water · Hustle · UNC women's soccer · downtown Los Angeles
Joshua Medcalf is the founder of Train to be Clutch and the author of six books including Pound the Stone, Chop Wood Carry Water, and Hustle. He gave up law school scholarships to live and serve at a homeless shelter in downtown Los Angeles, then moved into the closet of a gym where Train to be Clutch was born around the mission to love people, serve people, and provide value. He created the first mental training apps for basketball, soccer, and golf and is one of only two people invited to work with UNC women's soccer on mental conditioning.
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